Fort Polk and Mangelsen are older horses in peak form, and on Saturday at Louisiana Downs both will be making the first stakes appearance of their career. They go in separate races on the Louisiana Cup card of six stakes worth a cumulative $300,000. The program for Louisiana-breds will feature a mandatory payout in the pick five, which has a carryover of $349,763. The 50-cent bet will run on races 3-7. It is an all-stakes sequence. Fort Polk is a 5-year-old set to run in the $50,000 Distaff, a 1 1/16-mile turf race for fillies and mares that drew stakes winners Net a Bear and Offspring. Fort Polk enters off back-to-back wins at Louisiana Downs, taking the allowances over open-company rivals by a combined margin of 22 3/4 lengths. “She’s never run in a stakes before,” said Pat Mouton, who trains Fort Polk for Steve and Pat Roe. “She deserves to the way she’s running. She deserves a chance, and we’re going to give her one. “It’s not an easy spot. There’s a couple of nice fillies coming in from Evangeline, but she’s a nice filly, too. They can’t come in here and steal it. They’ll have to run for it.” :: DRF Bets players get free Daily Racing Form Past Performances and up to 5% weekly cashback. Click to learn more. Fort Polk earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 85 in her last start, when she rallied from off the pace en route to a 13 1/2-length blowout June 19. She is moving back to turf, where she also is a winner, for the Distaff. Fort Polk will break from the rail under Jorge Guzman. “She’s got a heck of a late kick going a mile and a sixteenth,” Mouton said. Net a Bear won the $60,000 Opelousas over open company in her last start July 2 at Evangeline Downs. Offspring accounted for the $70,000 Louisiana Legends Turf on June 5 at Evangeline. Others making up the seven-horse Distaff include Blessed Anna, a daughter of the multiple stakes-winning mare Pleasantly Blessed. Mangelsen, 5, starts in the $50,000 Turf Classic, which is for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/16 miles on the grass. He faces 10 others, including defending winner Budro Talking and stakes winners Treys Midnite Moon, Maga Man, and Grand Luwegee. Mangelsen enters off back-to-back wins over the John Franks course at Louisiana Downs, and the Beyer of 86 that he put up in his most recent out is the best last-race number in the Turf Classic. “He seems to really like the Louisiana Downs turf course,” said Ron Faucheux, who trains Mangelsen for Allen Cassedy. “This race, we kind of took a chance. We nominated and saw where he would fit. A couple of horses that we see over the winter, like Ninety One Assault, we won’t see in here, so we thought it would be a good time to take a chance with him. “He is $5,000 starter [eligible] and usually we don’t try to make a bold jump up like this, but we thought now would be the time. On top of the fact that he’s doing well, his numbers put him right there with them. We’ll just kind of see how he handles this kind of company.” Carlos Lozada has the mount from post 2. “He likes to run on the lead,” Faucheux said. Faucheux has Afleet Ascent cross-entered in the Turf Classic and $50,000 Louisiana Cup Sprint. “If this race [stays] on the turf, we’re going to run Afleet Ascent on the grass,” he said. More ground for Monte Man Monte Man, who is an eight-time stakes winner, seeks to capture the local Sprint for the second time in his career. Faucheux said he likes the added ground the horse will pick up in the six-furlong race after running second over five-eighths of a mile in an Evangeline allowance July 24. “You could tell by watching the race, another couple of jumps he would have got there for the win,” he said. Monte Man will break from post 3 in the 11-horse field. Gerard Melancon has the mount for Ivery Sisters Racing. Faucheux also will saddle Bertie’s Galaxy, recent winner of the Louisiana Legends Sprint and an allowance, both at Evangeline. “He’s doing really good right now,” Faucheux said. The trainer has another starter, Half Again, a 6-for-11 runner and full brother to multiple stakes winner Ours to Run who is making his stakes debut. Half Again is a son of the recently deceased stallion Half Ours and is a sentimental starter for Faucheux. “I remember Half Ours when I worked for Todd Pletcher,” Faucheux said. “I was around him. “We’ve had a lot of Half Ours [horses] we’ve trained over the years. We always kept him in high regard as one of the best stallions in Louisiana. It would be great to be able to come out on top for that reason.” The stakes winners Faucheux has had for Half Ours include Smitty’s Cougar. In other races, multiple stakes winners Our Lost Love and Snowball break side by side in the $50,000 Filly and Mare Sprint. Streak of Silver looks for her second straight stakes win in the $50,000 Juvenile Fillies, and Tambourine Star adds Lasix for the $50,000 Juvenile after running second in his debut at Monmouth Park.